The Calcutta High Court on Friday dismissed a petition by the West Bengal unit of the Congress. The petition alleged that there was a discrepancy in the age and high school passing year in the election affidavit of BJP's Nandigram by-election candidate Hasirani Rath. What Had Congress Claimed? The state Congress claimed that Rath's affidavit stated her age as over 60 years, while she mentioned 1965 as the year she passed Class 10th, showing a discrepancy in terms of age. What Did the Court Say? Justice Krishna Rao stated in court that the state Congress's petition is dismissed. After arguments concluded on September 25, Justice Rao had reserved the judgment on the Congress party's petition. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had claimed that West Bengal Congress has no legal standing in this matter as they have no right to complain about the scrutiny of candidatures. Stating that inspecting affidavits is the responsibility of the Election Commission, the West Bengal Congress counsel appealed to the court for an order to inspect the documents submitted on behalf of the BJP candidate for the Nandigram Assembly constituency by-election scheduled for October 6. What Argument Did the ECI Present? ECI counsel Jishnu Chowdhury said that scrutiny for the October 6 Nandigram by-election was completed on September 17. No objection can be raised at this stage. Chowdhury argued that an alleged false statement cannot be the ground to cancel a candidate's nomination. Senior counsel D. S. Naidu, representing the ECI, said that the issue of age cannot be considered such a significant flaw as to cancel Rath's candidature, because no maximum age limit is fixed for contesting elections. What Argument Did Congress Present? West Bengal Congress counsel Rhituju Ghosal had said that verifying the submitted documents was the responsibility of the Election Commission. He had appealed to the court to order an inspection of the documents submitted on behalf of the BJP candidate.